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Tez'la, Kobold mad scientist
Tez'la is middle-aged and has modified her intelligence with the Prodigy unique ability on page 160 of the Dungeon Master's Guide II. Tez'la CR 10 Female Kobold Expert 13 N Small humanoid (reptilian, prodigy (Int)) Init +0; Senses Darkvision 60 ft. Listen +7, Spot +7 Languages Draconic, Common, Gnome, Elven, Goblin, Giant, Undercommon, Githyanki, Slaad, Beholder --------------- AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 11 (+1 size) hp 13 (13d6-39) Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +8 Weakness Light Sensitivity --------------- Speed 30 ft. Ranged Death Ray +10 touch (11d6 electricity) Melee Unarmed +6 (1d2-4, provokes attacks of opportunity) Base Atk +9, Grp +1 Combat Gear Death Ray --------------- Abilities Str 3, Dex 10, Con 5, Int 24, Wis 8, Cha 13 Feats Magical aptitude, skill focus: knowledge (arcana), skill focus: spellcraft, skill focus: craft (clockwork), endurance Skills Concentration +13, craft (clockwork) +30, decipher script +27, disable device +27, knowledge (arcana) +30, knowledge (architecture and engineering) +27, knowledge (the planes) +27, listen +7, search +27, spot +7, spellcraft +32, use magic device +20 Posessions Combat gear plus tools, protective goggles, and random bizarre magical items (DM's discretion) --------------- Light Sensitivity Tez'la is dazzled in areas of bright light (such as bright day, or within range of a sunlight spell). Death Ray This is a magical item of Tezla's construction. It is capable of great power, but is delicate. If the user rolls a natural 1 when attacking with the Death Ray, it breaks down. Repairing it takes at least one minute, a DC 25 craft (clockwork) check and a DC 50 spellcraft check. Retries are possible, but each check always requires at least one minute. If the repairer passes one check and fails another, the passed check does not have to be redone. Personality and Notes "I have harnessed the arcane powers and caused them to operate a mechanical device." Tez'la is a middle-aged arcane theorist of incredible genius who has made a number of revolutionary discoveries in her field, ranging from environmental effects on magical pathways to the variances in arcane law from plane to plane. She also exhibits signs of extraordinarily bizarre and quasi-psychotic behaviour, ranging from stream-of-consciousness rambling to unprovoked mad cackling. Although persuasive in the short term, few people are willing to put up with her questionable interpersonal skills for long, so she's taken up a semi-hermit lifestyle in a caved laboratory about 40 miles out from a large city. Even most wizards, employing the more practical uses of magic, are not as well versed in arcane theory as Tez'la. "Throughout all realities there is magic. Is this magic divine or arcane! If divine my efforts are for naught; if arcane — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when I will succeed in attaching my machinery to the very wheelwork of nature." Tez'la boasts expertise in her craft even some wizards have never heard of; though casting spells takes a great deal of practical knowledge, Tez'la takes the opposite extreme and pores over theory and concept. Talk of "alternating arcane currents," "circular power wavelengths along a non-gravitational vertical axis" or "power pulse magnification resultant of parallel conduits" is likely to confuse all but the most similarly-focused arcanists. Though she lacks the spell-casting ability to craft magic items herself, she is able to design such items and hold the hands of crafters as they struggle through her blueprints. Though her output is erratic, squeezed in between obsessive binges researching some new theory, the few machines she does design are applauded for employing experimental but highly successful makeup; an item built with low-level spells and costing only a handful of XP exhibiting the output of items worth hundreds of thousands in gold pieces. Of course, since Tez'la designs these items to test theories and further scholarly knowledge, they have a way of being of limited capacity - items firing completely straight bolts of lightning with effective ranges of over 3 miles are incredible when built for under 10,000 gp, but less attractive if they only work when firing on the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus under precise conditions. "The '''fools' at the University - they laughed at me when they saw my work! They had the audacity to call me mad! Well, who's laughing now? Ha ha ha - HAAA, HA HA HA HA!!!"'' Tez'la is the symbol of eccentricity and instability. She cackles, mutters, and screams what she's saying at inappropriate times. Though she has enrolled in six different arcane universities in her younger years, she dropped out of each - already strained relations based on her race were considerably worsened when she'd begin to argue vehemently over theory and formulae. She also has a tendency - frequently after going days without sleep while dissecting a theory - to exhibit compulsive behaviour, suffer paranoid delusions and hallucinate. Failed projects may be violently attacked with her craftman's tools, which she keeps in such poor repair that they never provide bonuses even if masterwork in design. "You! Never trust a gnome!" Plot Hooks Eugenics Program: Though most of the arcane experts of Kobold nature are sorcerers, there exists a talented but small fringe society of wizards, seeing their craft (power gained through patience and perseverance rather than inherent gifts) as most befitting of Koboldkind and the one true way of their race. Though yet small, this tribe of outcasts hopes to breed and swell their own population of kobold wizards. To this end, they have also kidnapped Tez'la for their breeding program; though not technically a wizard, her gifts for studied magic are all but unsurpassed and a credit to their kind. However, many important people have expensive investments in Tez'la in the form of research grants and are willing to hire adventurers for a rescue mission. Depending on the PCs' quality of information, they may or may not know the mission has a time limit; Tez'la has been rendered sterile by her prolonged exposure to unorthodox magical emissions. Though this is of little concern to the hermit researcher, her captors' response may range from the release, enslavement or even execution of the now-useless captive. Additionally, though the wizards themselves are too cowardly to fight the PCs head on, their lair is far from unguarded. Ordinary kobold traps are fiendish enough; kobolds with INT bonuses significantly above the norm and a high quantity of magic spells at their disposal can wire all entrances to be deadly even to a high-level adventurer. Experiment Stolen, Things Explode: One of Tez'la's finished projects has been stolen, and now some nut is running about the countryside with an object of incredible power. It has several weaknesses, but are unlikely to be identified except by the Tez'la herself; adventurers must travel to her lab to find how to track and eliminate it. Due to the nature of Tez'la's creations, the DM should feel free to go nuts in assigning power to the device. Tez'la is far ahead of her time as a magic item designer, and is a handy explanation for any artifact-level item's origin. Tez'la does not design projects for military ruggedness, however, and the DM should also build several opportunities for breakdown or unexpected results in the use of the device. Category:KoboldCategory:ExpertCategory:CR 10Category:Dungeon Master's Guide 2Category:Prodigy